Sunny Day, Pondside Pleasures

 A beautiful day,  although quite breezy, with puffy white clouds sailing apace across a radiant sky.  I walked the trail around Mud Pond in Moreau Lake State Park this bright crisp morning, accompanying my friend Sue on her stewardship duties and stopping to take in all the delights we found along the way.


Can you see the mother goose on her nest here on this beaver lodge?  She's the larger of the two white blobs.  Pretty well camouflaged, I'd say, and watched over by her mate, who was keeping guard from a nearby log.

We didn't find any new flowers today, but we did find the promise of blossoms to come with these very pretty, purple-tinged and scalloped leaves of Wild Columbine.

This cluster of Dutchman's Breeches' leaves caught my eye with the sparkle of water drops held in its ruffly foliage.

Many mosses are sending up masses of sporangia, the tiny spore caps nodding on the ends of hair-fine stalks.

Plantain-leaved Sedge is now fully in bloom, with both the yellow staminate flowers on top and the white pistillate flowers lower on the stem, ready to receive the pollen.

Unlike that sedge, Pussy Willows bear male and female flowers on separate plants.  This is a male Pussy Willow, with catkins ripe with pollen that's ready to loft on the breeze to find female Pussy Willows nearby.

Some of the beautiful things we found today have been waiting all winter for us admire them, such as this nice growth of evergreen Running Pine Club Moss adorning a moss-covered log.

I don't know if these tiny Fan-shaped Jelly Fungi have been biding on this log all winter, or if they are newly sprouted.   I just thought they were very cute and colorful, especially intermixed with that green lichenous bark.

In spring, a young fly's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.  Tis the same the whole world 'round.